


Crystals

by Livelovelupin



Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Almost Love Confession, And crystals!!, M/M, Marauders Era (Harry Potter), We respect Hope Lupin in this household okay?
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-01
Updated: 2020-10-01
Packaged: 2021-03-08 00:20:09
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,143
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26756416
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Livelovelupin/pseuds/Livelovelupin
Summary: "...This is to say, it usually takes a while for Remus to start feeling genuinely comfortable at Hogwarts, and he has a system for it."
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Kudos: 46





	Crystals

_Hogwarts_ is wonderful, but it always takes Remus a little while to adjust. 

Remus feels like he will crawl out of his own skin the first few weeks back. He doesn’t know why, and it makes absolutely no sense because Hogwarts is his home away from home and all that, but it always takes a little longer for him to actually settle in. A lot longer than the rest of the marauders, at least, who seem home at their home away from home the moment they step onto the Hogwarts express. Maybe even before then.

This is to say, it usually takes a while for Remus to start feeling genuinely comfortable at Hogwarts, and he has a system for it. 

Well, he mostly has a system for it. His first year at Hogwarts, Remus didn’t unpack his bags until the week before Christmas break, because he felt like he was going to be sent back home at any time, as soon as Dumbledore changed his mind about liking werewolves or as soon as someone found out (and since Remus had been roomed with some of the brightest wizards from his year, he figured that it wouldn’t take long for someone to catch on. On that note, Remus was wrong on two accounts. It did take the marauders two extra years to finally figure it out, and no one was sent back home. He’s happy he was wrong.)

He thought that it would be useless unpacking if he was going to be sent away. He doesn’t remember what exactly changed his mind or if he had some kind of epiphany, but he does know that on the Tuesday before Christmas break, he unpacked his clothes and belongings and felt, strangely, in the most unlike-Remus fashion ever, that he wasn’t going to lose something that he so desperately wished not to lose.

A system. Remus doesn’t unpack until he feels settled in. It’s a somewhat pathetic way to spend a Hogsmeade weekend but at least his clothes will finally be put away (having to sort out through all his clothes looking for his Gryffindor tie or socks is getting old.)

This is why Remus is sitting cross-legged in front of their shared closet (because the marauders share one closet. One desk, also, though they mostly let James use it because he can never learn how not to spill ink on his bedsheets), surrounded by subjectively one or two too many jumpers, when Sirius enters their dorm room.

It is rather strange, Remus thinks, that he’s been making an entire day of folding clothes for six years in a row, now, and none of his friends know about it. At least, until now.

Sirius looks confused, at first, closing the door behind him slowly and not taking his eyes off of Remus. He grins abruptly. “You’re folding clothes?” Sirius says instead of ‘Hello’, and Remus truly tries not to smile. “Oh, do I know some spells that will make your life easier, Re.”

“You don’t say! It’s not like we’re taking the same magic classes at the same magic school or anything.”

“That’s not what I meant, shitface.”

“I don’t like the spells,” Remus says, chuckling slightly. He doesn’t know when it happens exactly, but Sirius is now sitting on the floor in front of him, cross-legged and mirroring his stance. He picks one of the many shirts Remus is drowning in, and he starts folding it unprompted. “I like this more. It’s calming.”

“I’ll take your word for it,” Sirius says. “So, you _do_ know how to fold clothes. How come they never stay folded ever?”

Remus groans. “No, no. This year I’ll make an effort. I’ll be organized. I made a promise with myself.”

“Not to dampen your spirits, Re...” Sirius trails off, raising an eyebrow, and Remus pinches his side. “For what it’s worth, I don’t mind sharing a wardrobe with you. Even if you’re very messy.”

“How sweet,” Remus says dryly. He’s smiling, though. He picks up a shirt to fold to have something to do with his hands. “This isn’t fair. James is messier than me.”

“Eh. maybe. You’re messy enough on your own, though.” 

“Whatever.”

“Whatever, whatever,” Sirius trails off. His eyes focus on something in Remus’ Hogwarts trunk, and Remus is thinking of what in the world could catch Sirius’ attention like that when Sirius takes out _the_ box, very carelessly, making what’s inside if it rattle.

Remus flinches, stupidly, and he reaches out to take the box from Sirius. It’s made from carved wood and is tiny, it fits in Sirius’ palm, but Remus knows it’s magically enlarged from the inside.

“Oh, oh, not a chance,” Sirius says, holding the box out of Remus’ reach. He’s grinning. “I need to know what’s inside this.”

 _“Sirius,_ ” Remus groans. He tries to reach for the box again, but Sirius hides it behind his back. “Honestly. Just be careful.”

Sirius’ eyes soften, and he puts the box between the both of them. “I don’t have to see if you don’t want me to, Re.”

Remus almost wants to roll his eyes at how his heart flutters. He clears his throat. “No, it’s fine. I’ll break you if you break one of them, though.”

Sirius laughs. “Yeah, sure, Re, you’ll break m—” Sirius stops talking when he opens the box, and the expression on his face makes Remus snort. 

“What the hell.”

“Ta-da!” Remus says, folding a pair of dressing robes that he has never worn before. “You better clear up your aura because they hold energy and—”

“Crystals. You have crystals?” Sirius asks, taking out a handful of crystals from the box. “You are such a fucking fraud! I thought Divination wasn’t your ‘thing’. Remus!”

“It’s not!” Remus says. “And I don’t believe in any of it, really. But my mama does and— well. She likes sending these with me.”

“Hope! I love Hope. Tell her I say hi, please. Tell her I love her.”

It makes Remus giddy that Sirius likes his mom. (Hope is overly fond of Sirius, and that makes Remus stupidly happy, too.) “Sure, Sirius.”

Sirius doesn’t say anything, for a while. He admires the crystals in his palms. “Do you know what they do?”

Remus raises an eyebrow. “They do nothing.”

Sirius snorts. “You know what I mean.”

“Sure. I know what they do.”

“Pop quiz!” Sirius exclaims suddenly, almost making Remus jump. “What does this do?”

“What does it _supposedly_ do,” Remus corrects, taking the rose quartz from Sirius.

Sirius rolls his eyes, taking the stone back. “Ugh.”

“That’s rose quartz. It promotes love and opens your heart.” Remus says, and he flushes when what he said registers in his brain... Of the one thousand and one stupid crystals Remus has, Sirius wants to know about that one. Remus starts to blabber, “You know? Love? Venus and Ishtar and Aphrodite and— I feel like you get the gist. Quartz is really durable. Other minerals have a tendency to split into fragments, but not quartz. It has no cleavage because its bonds are really, really strong, and that’s kind of poetic to think about when this symbolizes love, you know? ‘Cause love is supposed to be strong and durable and—”

Sirius smiles so wide, Remus wonders how his face doesn’t split in half. “I think I get the point you’re trying to get at, Re.”

Remus is so fucking glad he’s drowning in clothes. He clears his throat and picks up a jacket. “Good.”

“An eye!” Sirius says, abandoning the quartz and picking up a deep blue amulet instead. “This is so pretty. What does it do?”

“Oh, I love that one, my—”

“‘I don’t believe in them! They do nothing!’” Sirius parrots, raising an eyebrow. “You don’t believe in them, my ass.”

Remus bites the inside of his cheek, and he tries not to smile again. “Shut up. My grandma gave me that. From Egypt. She lives there. These are popular in a lot of places, though. It’s supposed to protect you from the evil eye. Envy?” Remus bites his lip. “I should get you one of these. With a jawline like yours, Sirius, I think you ought to walk around with it glued on your face.” Remus doesn’t know where the latter part of that sentence comes from. Funny thing is, looking at Sirius looking at him like that, he doesn’t regret saying it at all

“Well, if Remus fucking Lupin compliments my jawline, that must amount to something.”

Remus snorts, and Sirius starts rummaging around the box again.

“Okay, last one, and then I promise to help you fold clothes. Which I still don’t get, Re. There are spells that— Oh,” Sirius says, picking up a selenite tower. “Oh, this one is pretty. Okay, last crash course: This one?”

Remus smiles despite himself. “That’s selenite. From Selene? The goddess of the moon. It—”

“I thought we hated the moon ‘round this part of town.”

“What? We love the moon. We hate the lycanthropy, Sirius, catch up.”

Sirius laughs. “Noted.”

“I love that one, too,” Remus muses. “My mom and I would hold it after every full moon when everything was so… new, you know? She told me that it would help me feel better faster.”

“I fucking love Hope.”

“Oh, you’ve mentioned.”

Sirius looks at the selenite tower in his hand, then he looks at Remus. “Did you believe her?”

Remus raises an eyebrow. “Of course I did. I was five and my mother has a very sweet voice. I was persuaded.”

Sirius is smiling as he closes the box, and he gently puts it next to Remus’ jumpers in the closet. “How come I’ve never seen these before?”

“You’ve never helped me fold clothes before.”

“Touché,” Sirius says. He’s folding a shirt and Remus notices how he folds shirts in a different way than Sirius does. Most of the ones Remus folds look stupidly messy, and Sirius’ look like they could be displayed in the window of an artsy clothing shop, which is a little bit ridiculous because Remus is sure Sirius has never had to fold a shirt in his life. 

_You’re stupidly good at this,_ Remus wants to say. _You’re stupidly good at everything you do and it’s not fair._

“Does Hope really believe in all that?” Sirius asks suddenly, meeting Remus’ eyes. 

Remus thinks for a moment. “I think she does. And you wouldn’t expect it, would you? My mama’s a doctor, she’s all about science, and yet… I guess I could see where it comes from, though. If witches and wizards and werewolves exist—”

“Then crystals better fucking work.”

Remus laughs. “Yes. Exactly. I’ll make her read your palm next time she sees you.”

Sirius freezes. “She does that?”

Remus smiles, thinking about his mom. “Yes. I think she’d love to read yours. She’d tell you that she sees love! and prosperity! In your future. She’s read my palm one thousand and one times and that’s what she always tells me.”

Sirius smiles slowly, and he doesn’t meet Remus’ eyes when he says, “I think everyone sees love and prosperity in your future, Re. And so much fucking… amazing things.”

“I think that rose quartz had quite the effect on you,” Remus says, his voice maybe a little scratchy, but it doesn’t really matter because Sirius is looking at him like _that_ , again, and if Remus kisses Sirius for the first time right now, he swears he will change his stance on crystals, because what are the odds? Sirius holds a rose quartz crystal, and he is suddenly looking at Remus like he can look at nothing else.

James and Peter enter their dorm room then, because of course they do, and Remus is not changing his mind about anything. Crystals are a fucking sham. 

“We’re folding clothes?” Peter asks when he sees Remus and Sirius. James says nothing as he plops, head first, onto his bed.

“What’s up with him?” Remus asks, trying to calm down his heartbeat. 

“Oh. Lily,” Peter says as he sits down next to Sirius, and picks up a shirt to fold.

Remus smiles. “Thank you, Pe—”

“Oh!” Sirius exclaims suddenly, making both Peter and Remus jump. James still looks like a kicked puppy on his bed. Sirius winks discreetly in Remus’ direction before getting up and sitting on James’ legs. “James!”

“ _Get off_ , Sirius—”

“We have something that can help!” Sirius says, ignoring James. “It’ll open your heart and promote love. That’s what Remus said, anyway.”

“I did _not,”_ Remus says, but he can’t help grinning. “But we could try something that might help, Jamie.” And really, looking at James’ face light up, or at Peter helping him fold his clothes, or looking at Sirius whenever he fucking does anything, how can Remus ever not feel completely at home around these boys?

**Author's Note:**

> This was so fun to write!! I freaking love Hope 💜💜💜💜🔮


End file.
